The Sky is Falling

Chapter 1

  I opened my eyes, slowly becoming aware of my surroundings. A small, peaceful smile was already forming on my face as I observed my environment. I noted that I was sitting in a comfortable snow white chair, my arms resting gently on the padded armrests.

The room, if I could even call it that, was the same snowy white color as the chair I was seated on. I couldn't see the walls of the room.  Everything was the same color and shadows didn't seem to matter there, and if I thought about it,  neither did light.

A door knob appeared in thin air just before a door sized section of white wall opened along with it, revealing a doorway. A young woman stood in the doorway, one of her hands still resting gently on the door knob. She smiled kindly at me and with a graceful movement she gestured into the room she had come from.

"Hello, I'm Rebekah, please come in." She said. Her voice was kind and compelled me to trust her, and I did. I stood up from my chair and walked past the woman named Rebekah and through the doorway she held open. She closed the door quietly behind us as I looked curiously around the room.

  A beautiful desk made of a lightly colored wood sat in the middle of the room. A chair sat on either side of the desk. Rebekah walked past me and sat down in one of the chairs, resting her hands on the desk top. She nodded at the chair that sat in front of the desk and I sat down.

"Hello," She said, continuing to smiled kindly at me.

  "Hi," I said, smiling back at her. My attention was caught for a moment when a few strands of her light blonde hair fell out of her neat ponytail, but was brought back to what she was saying when her hand reached up and pushed the hair away from her face. She was looking at me expectantly, I realized I had completely missed what she had asked.

"What?" I asked sheepishly, glancing down at my hands.

She smiled a little wider, amused by my little blunder. After a moment her expression got more serious and she asked, "Do you know your name?"

It was such a strange question that I was taken aback for a moment. Of course I knew my own name. My name was....I blanked. What was my name? I knew I had one, everyone had a name. I just couldn't remember mine. Nervously, I started twisting my hands around in my lap.

"No, Is there something wrong with me?" I asked, worried by the fact that I didn't know my own name.

"Of course not darling, you're perfectly fine." She said, "It's to be expected."

"Do you know my name?" I asked, really hoping she did.

"Your name is Alice Green." She said, her expression edging on pity.

"Alice," I repeated, trying the name out. I looked down at my hands and turned them over so I was looking at my palms.

  "Alice, my name is Alice" I said again and suddenly the edges of my vision went fuzzy and then blackened. The blackness spread to cover my vision and then suddenly disappeared.

I wasn't sitting in the office anymore. I was standing in a bright room filled with young children, the tallest one barely looking like she'd come up to my waist.

  A little red headed girl was sitting cross legged across from me. She was missing her two front teeth. I could tell because she was grinning at me. I looked down at the floor between us and saw a paper completely covered in a rainbow of colors. Crayons layed on the floor beside it.

My attention was brought back to the little girl when she said "Alice! Alice! Lookie what I drew!"

  Before I could respond a blinding light filled my vision and I felt myself thrown out of the scene . My hands came back into view, followed by the rest of the room that I could see with my head lowered. My heart was beating so hard that I almost though it might beat itself out of the cage of my ribs.

When I looked up from my hands Rebekah was looking at me expectantly again. I had missed another question when I had seen, well, whatever that had been. I almost told Rebekah about the vision but I stopped myself just before I said anything. Instead I repeated what I had said the first time she had asked me a question.

   "What?" I asked again, sure that I wasn't making a good impression.

Her laughter was melodious and brought a smile to my face. She laughed for a moment and then repeated her question.

"Do you know where you are?" She asked, still smiling brightly.

  My head turned to let my gaze roam around the room. All of the furniture in the room was either painted white or built of a lightly colored wood.  I looked back at Rebekah, who had been watching me as I looked around.

"No, I'm sorry,'' I said, glancing down at my hands. I got the feeling that I probably should have figured it out by now, but I hadn't.

  "Oh don't be sorry Alice, it's okay." She said.

Looking back up at her, I was filled with conflicting emotions. I felt strangely comforted but still rather awkward. I did my best to shrug off the awkwardness and tried to pay attention to Rebekah's next sentence.

"Alice, you darling, are in the Overworld" She said, her voice calm with an undertone of seriousness.

My mind went blank again. I was where? What was the Overworld? I had a little bit of an idea but I really hoped with all of my heart that I was wrong.

"What's the Overworld? How did I get here?" I asked, forgetting to give her a moment to answer in between the rapidly fired questions.
  Focused on Rebekah's face, I searched for any hint that she was joking, that this was all one massive prank.

"The Overworld is basically Heaven, and you got here because...Alice, you're dead." She said, the pity now clear in her expression.

  My eyes widened and I couldn't find a way to speak. My words were stuck in my throat, trapped by shock. I searched her eyes for any sign of a lie, and I got nothing.

She was telling the truth.